Benzoylecgonine, ecgonine and ecgonidine are known metabolites of cocaine (see, for example, S. M. Roberts et al., "An Assay for Cocaethylene and Other Cocaine Metabolites in Liver Using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography", Anal. Biochem., 202, pp. 256-61 (1992), D. T. Chia and J. A. Gere, "Rapid Drug Screening Using Toxi-Lab Extraction Followed by Capillary, Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectroscopy", Clin. Biochem., 20, pp. 303-06 (1987)). Routes for their preparation have been established (see, for example, A. H. Lewin et al., "2.beta.-Substituted Analogues of Cocaine. Synthesis and Binding to the Cocaine Receptor", J. Med. Chem., 35, pp. 135-40 (1992); M. R. Bell and S. Archer, "L(+)-2-Tropinone", J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 82, pp. 4642-44 (1960)).
We have demonstrated the pharmaceutical efficacy of benzoylecgonine and ecgonine in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and related inflammatory disorders (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,469,700, 4,512,996 and 4,556,663). We have also demonstrated the pharmaceutical efficacy of certain 2-.beta.-derivatized analogues of benzoylecgonine, ecgonine and ecgonidine (see, for example, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/999,307). We have now discovered a new class of easily synthesized, covalently coupled benzoylecgonine, ecgonine and ecgonidine derivatives that have novel therapeutic features and improve certain therapeutic properties of underivatized benzoylecgonine, ecgonine and ecgonidine.